Wonder Woman of the Week: Beatrice Vio
This week's Wonder Woman is an athlete who is one of the top in her field- especially impressive considering her nation is known for fielding the top athletes in her sport. Beatrice Vio is an Italian wheelchair fencer- a type of fencing competition adapted for the Para-Olympic Games. Vio was born in Venice in 1997 and began fencing at an extremely young age- and that may have been the secret to her resilient spirit. When Vio was eleven, she contracted a form of meningitis that spread through her body so rapidly that doctors had to amputate her limbs to save her life. That didn't stop the young girl through from finding a way to practice what she referred to as her "3 S's" (school, fencing [scherma in Italian], and scouting).
Beatrice Vio adapted to fencing using prosthetic limbs pretty quickly and before she turned 18, Vio was already making a serious name for herself in wheelchair fencing. In fact, she became such a phenomenon in her country, that the Italian citizenry started a petition to make Vio the flag bearer for the Italian team for the 2012 Para-Olympic Games opening ceremony even though Vio was still too young to compete in them. Once she was old enough to compete however, she shredded the competition. In 2016, Vio earned the gold medal in individual foil and bronze in team foil for Italy before earning gold again in the 2021 individual Olympic foil and silver in the team event at the Tokyo games. Vio has also won three world championship gold medals and four European championship gold medals. Part of what makes Vio such an incredible athlete is she shows individuals that they don't need to be defined by their disabilities- regardless of what those disabilities might be. The young athlete is also a stanch advocate for vaccinations- something that could have prevented her condition had she been vaccinated early in life.
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